Louguantai
Hillside Daoist retreat where a sage reputedly wrote Daoism's founding text, then vanished.
Location
About this audio guide
The guide to Louguantai outside Xi'an opens at a mountain checkpoint some twenty six hundred years ago, where a border warden named Yin Xi refused to let an old traveler pass without an explanation. That traveler was Laozi, a court archivist meaning to leave civilization behind for good, and Yin Xi's answer was to bring him up to a star-watching platform on this ridge rather than turn him back. You'll hear how the standoff led to the writing of the Dao De Jing on this hillside, and about the tomb and stone tablets later visitors, including the poets Li Bai and Su Shi, left behind. Stand at the preaching platform at the center of the nine courtyards to get your bearings first.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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